Aam Papad – A Highly Irresistible Indian Street Food

Amritsar, the golden city is filled up with spicy, sweet and buttery food. Since this holy city is known for its heritage, apart from Golden Temple and Wagah Border, there are many more places to visit. You will also encounter hundreds of food stalls to kill your hunger. One thing is for sure if you are in Amritsar, there will be times when your belly will be all filled up. But here we have something different, something to digest your food, that is Aam Papad. ‘Aam Papad’, this word is enough to give you flashbacks of your golden days. It had been a childhood partner to each one of us. The Khatta-Meetha taste of Aam Papad will drive you back into good old times and will help you to eat more.

Aam Papad: A delight

Aam Papad is everyone’s favorite. Our childhood would have been incomplete without its tangy taste. All of us have some childhood memories connected with it. Every evening going to the corner shop and buying these shapeless strips of Aam Papad have given us so much pleasure and a sense of contentment. If you sneak peek through my list of best food items of Amritsar, Aam Papad comes out to be among top 5. If you are one among those kinds of people who love piquant flavors just like me, I would say Aam Papad is going to be your new favorite. To the ones who do not know what Aam Papad is here is a little description of that.

Aam Papad is a roll of a strip(it is shaped that way), which is made of raw mango pulp. Basically, it is mango leather

It is 100% vegetarian

Aam Papad tastes a bit sweet, a bit salty all I would say is it has got mixed flavors and is really tangy

The famous one in Amritsar

The street food of Amritsar is known all-round. And why not the people here are serving for generations. Well, if you are in India you come across wide range of Aam Papad vendors. While researching for our street food bicycle tour, we had tried so many spicy and buttery food items, and now it was time to try out something different. So, we went to Ram Lubhaya, a vendor who is serving his amazing tangy Aam Papad since 1968. When I visited Ram Lubhaya Aam Papad Wala for the first time, I was stunned to see that there could be so many variants of Aam Papad. This place has got two outlets. One is the shop and the other one is their cart. The vendor is really humble. He has a bucket full of information about the local food of Amritsar. What made me admire him more is his love for the city. Although there were many things like ‘churan’, ‘hing goli’ etc, but what fascinated me the most is, there are up to 15 types of Aam Papad. The Aam Papad is so good that we have included this in our street food bicycle tour. If you are not done with it, get a box packed with a little of every variety.

Alternatives we tried on our street food bicycle tour

Dry mango Aam Papad

Khatta Aam Papad (Dry)

Salty Aam Papad(Dry)

Wet Mango Aam Papad(Sweet)

Ram laddu

Anardana Goli

Anardana with the seasoning of chutney and masala

Of course, this is not feasible to try each and every item at one time, so I have provided you the listicle of the “must to eat” things there.

From salty to sweet, you will find here every type of Aam Papad. Every Aam Papad is unique in its own way. The Ram laddu is for all those people who love to relish the taste of tamarind. The Anardana Goli is made of pomegranate. And with the addition of chutney and masala turns out to be so amazing.

The Aam Papad is served on a disposable plate. Upon the Aam Papad, a spice mix which is basically a blend of 12 different authentic spices, mint chutney, white salt, black salt and a bit of lemon is squashed. This Aam Papad is counted one among best desi foods of Amritsar. But let me tell you this place is only for food lovers and not for the for the ones who get obsessed and fascinated by the ambiance. And what my experience says is that when you eat here, you don’t care about the ambiance. The 50 years old taste of Aam Papad will make you forget everything.

That moment is really mouth watering when you see them sprinkling spices and squashing lemon. It is the spice mix, the key ingredient that has made this Aam Papad so popular. The lemon makes it even tangier. And then over that, the addition of mint chutney is the best part. When you finally eat it your taste buds excites with its tangy taste. And after you end up eating it you begin to crave for it. People generally go to Ram Lubhaya after their evening street food trial whether it’s me, his local customers or renowned celebrities like Chef Vikas Khanna even, we all love this Aam Papad.

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Reviews

This experience with City On Pedals was a priceless, genuine Amritsar experience that I would highly recommend to travelers and tourists alike and is something you can’t easily get unless you’re with a well connected local.– Charm Bartolay

I believe I was the first ever customer, when I did this tour in mid-December.
The guide had an incredible knowledge about the city, its heritage, architecture, culture and history, as well as the culinary scene!
A must do if when you visit Amritsar!– Jens Fisker

My wife and I took this tour after finding out about it through Instagram. It was a great experience. We cycled to areas not found in any guide books, and to places we wouldn’t even be able to find if tried. Many great food stops along the way. Can’t recommend this enough!– Steven G

One of the best instant connection I have made in life….City on Pedals, the journey started with a simple comment on instagram picture and ended with best of the experience, lots of cultural information about Amritsar and whole lot of finger licking food. Rishab and team is doing great work. The enthusiasm and passion for City on Pedals is unmatched. Would love to do it again and again. Keep it up guys….you are doing the best!!– Bhumika

We were approached by two very polite reps with information about their cycle tour – it sounded really interesting and we signed up for the next day. And they delivered what they have promised – an exciting exploration through Amritsar’s parks, streets and alleys, discovering hidden corners and learning about the history, architecture and culinary treats. I can only recommend it – if you like to get up early 😉– Bhoermann

Our City on Pedals excursion proved there is much more to Amristar than the Golden Temple.
An excellent digital marketer, Rishabh let us know about his company by commenting on one of my Instagram posts (with an #Amritsar hashtag)—and within minutes my husband and I were able to quickly and easily book a tour for the following morning. The next morning, we were delighted to discover that we would be the only ones on the tour: a private exploration of the city with Rishabh and his associate.– Brian

We were a fam of 4 (husband+wife + 2 teenage kids), who took a 6 am cycling trip with City on Pedals, in Amritsar. We were very ably guided through the city with Rishab leading from the front and Aman bringing up the rear. They took us to a bunch of eating places and heritage places too! It was a leisurely 4 hour trip and Rishab was an extremely gracious host -treating us to jalebis, tea, lassi, kulchas, puris, halwa and at the same time interspersing this with historical, cultural and contemporary Amritsar gems(some hidden ones too). Highly recommend this adventure.– Aginder

“Great experience, worth the effort!” – Arianna

We had booked the two morning walking tours, which included the Golden Temple and the hidden gems of the city. It was hard to get up that early but it proved to be incredible! Our first guide Aman was extremely knowledgeable and showed us the Golden Temple, the kitchens, the morning ceremony and much more! The second tour which followed immediately after was like a behind the scenes Amritsar, and at our request they even took us to Jainawala Bag!
If you’re looking for a genuine experience to discover the city, City on Pedals is the only one you need!Read more on TripAdvisor ≫

“Nicely conducted tour with caring guide Aman” – Panthil

Did the street food tour . There were about 6 stops. Every stop served excellent varieties of street food like gol gappa, paneer pakoda, momos , soda, aam papad, gulab jamun, jalebi etc. The main course was at brothers pure veg dhaba , the thali served there was world class. It had authentic punjabi taste with medium spices. The food stalls were very hygienic. We did the tour by cycle rickshaw. Had a memorable time. The guide and cycle rickshaw pullers were very nice. Five out five stars to this tour!Read more on TripAdvisor ≫

“Nice Street Food Tour” – Eren Hasan

We went on a bicycle street food tour with Aman which was great fun! We had a good selection of food and he kept checking that we were okay on the bikes on the challenging Amritsar roads!

They are a really conscientious company who seem to genuinely care about giving a good experience to the customers 🙂Read more on TripAdvisor ≫

“Nice evening spent trying Street food on bicycles.” – Jasnesh

Went with my brother (only 2 of us on the tour). Guide was Aman. He was very humble. We are of Indian background so knew most of the food, that’s why Aman himself didn’t go too much into the details of each food. Visited around 8-9 stalls. It was a nice experience to try the local street food of Amritsar. Favorite was the jalebi at the end and momo and gol gappa. Just be careful while cycling in the busy streets. It is not for the faint-hearted.Read more on TripAdvisor ≫

“Fantastic Tours & Guides” – Nicola

I did 3 tours with this company, the Wagah Border Tour, the Golden Temple Walking Tour and the Amritsar Heritage Walking Tour. They were all really good but my favourite was the Golden Temple one. The guides are very knowledgeable and the tours are great value. I can’t recommend them enough.Read more on TripAdvisor ≫

The Hidden Secrets Cycle Tour and Golden Temple are must do activities when in Amritsar.

You will see sights and learn things that even lifelong residents of Amritsar do not know. It is definitely worth skipping that 6th kingfisher, setting your alarm and getting up early to enjoy these tours and the warm hospitality of this company and the people of Punjab.

I would like to say a huge thanks to Rishab for accommodating me at literally the last minute (I’m sorry for waking you up) and to Amandeep for 2 great Tours and for kindly giving me lifts to the start of the bike tour and to my hotel. The ride on a back of a scooter was an experience in itself.

Thanks and best wishes! I look forward to following your success on social media and be reminded of a truly unique birthday 🙂Read more on TripAdvisor ≫